Iraq's education initiative

From the Warrensburg Missouri news there is information about an education initiative program in Iraq. A representative of the international center at the University of Central Missouri participated in an International Education Symposium in Baghdad last week. Chuck Petentler, who is the director of international admissions and UCM, was just one of the individuals from 18 colleges and universities in the United States and the United Kingdom to attend this conference. The Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki proposed a 1 billion dollar plan to improve education by providing over 10,000 full ride scholarships, over the next five years, to students in Iraq. These students must meet academic requirements and must wish to pursue degrees in either the US or the UK.

The past several years of war in Iraq has had sever effects on education. Many of the college professors have fled the country or have been killed. The new leaders of Iraq have agreed that “the road to prosperity must begin with an educated population”. They also agree that their educational system is in need of new curriculums, majors, and teaching techniques. Prime Minister Maliki stated that by providing educational access, they will be “supporting the principles of peace and cooperation” and that having higher educational partnerships will “bring our peoples closer together”.

Because of the ethnic conflicts between the Shiite, Sunni, and Kurd, the Iraqi leaders have developed a plan to issue these scholarships fairly among them. To eliminate fear of bias the government plans to divide these scholarships between the 18 providences in Iraq, with each providence receiving a certain number based it’s the population. Zuhair Humadi, the director of the higher education initiative, has developed a pilot program for 500 Iraqi students, beginning this fall.

Petentler agrees that this is a great plan for the country of Iraq, and states that his goal is to have 10 new Iraqi students on UCM’s campus next fall. But he also acknowledges that this plan in still up in the air, he states “…my goal is to welcome new Iraqi students…Beyond that…it depends on the war and political developments, both of which can be difficult to predict”. For now the future of Iraq’s educational system seems to be bright.

http://www.digitalburg.com/artman2/publish/UCM_News_72/Iraq_s_education_initiative_could_bring_students_to_UCM.shtml